Knoppix, be a man and install Debian. It may be the hardest single thing to install, but when it's running, you never have to worry about it again. Plus, apt-get has to be the most powerful utility in Linux. I know other version of Linux now have similar features, but Debian has the largest repository of programs available to it.
Knoppix is Debian-in-a-can, man. Admitedly a quite flat can. And with a hole in the middle, but everything can't be perfect all the time.